Uncle buried Boston Marathon bombing suspect in Virginia

BOSTON – Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was buried in a Muslim cemetery near Richmind, Virginia with the help of a faith coalition, his uncle said Friday.

The secret burial this week ended a frustrating search for a community willing to take the body, which had been kept at a funeral parlour in Worcester, Massachusetts, as cemeteries in Massachusetts and several other states refused to accept the remains.

The Al-Barzakh Cemetery in Doswell accepted the body, according to The Boston Globe.

Tsarnaev was killed April 19 in a getaway attempt after a gunbattle with police. His younger brother, Dzhokhar, was captured later and remains in custody.

The Tsarnaevs’ uncle, Ruslan Tsarni of Maryland, took responsibility for arranging the burial after Tamerlan’s wife, Katherine Russell, said she wanted the body released to her in-laws.

Tsarni said Tsarnaev was buried in a cemetery in Doswell, Virginia, near Richmond.

“The body’s buried. That’s it,” he said.

With costs to protect the funeral home mounting, Worcester police earlier appealed for help finding a place to bury Tsarnaev. They announced Thursday that “as a result of our public appeal for help, a courageous and compassionate individual came forward to provide the assistance needed to properly bury the deceased.”

Tsarnaev was pronounced dead at a hospital in Boston, where he could have been buried under state law, because the city was his place of death. But Boston officials said they wouldn’t take the body because Tsarnaev lived in Cambridge, and Cambridge also refused.

Tsarnaev’s body had been at a Worcester, Massachusetts, funeral parlor for a week after being released by the medical examiner’s office, as protesters held signs and chanted against interment in that city.

The Al-Barzakh Cemetery’s website said “more than 12” Muslims are buried there and called it the first all Muslim cemetery in the central part of Virginia. Doswell is about 40 kilometers north of Richmond, the state’s capital.

His mother also said Russia refused to allow his body into the country so she could bury him in her native Dagestan, but Russian authorities would not comment on that contention.

Islamic tradition calls for the deceased to be washed, shrouded and prayed over before the body is buried, according to Kecia Ali, who teaches religion at Boston University. The corpse should be buried on its right side with the head toward Mecca, Muslim holy city in eastern Saudi Arabia, Ali said.

Muslims hold different beliefs about marking the grave, in some places elaborate markers are used and in others, graves are left unmarked, Ali said.

Tsarnaev’s uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, drove to Worcester from his Maryland home to the funeral parlor and was trying find a place for burial.